Kelly McParland: Drama aplenty as clock runs down to final episode of "The Fiscal Cliff"

Drama aplenty as clock runs down to final episode of "The Fiscal Cliff"

The most diverting part of the Fiscal Cliff Show, now playing for a limited run in Washington, is the high drama U.S. politicians have once again managed to bring to a dry economic equation.

It’s as if everything that happens in Washington these days was written in Hollywood. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I went to see “Lincoln” the other day, and the U.S. government as depicted in 1865 seemed far more respectable and better run than it is today. Maybe if Steven Spielberg was directing today’s administration we’d see an improvement.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say Fiscal Cliff is more bad television than classic cinema. Here’s the plot: To avoid an earlier economic crisis without actually solving it, Congress and the White House agreed to a deal in which painful spending cuts and unattractive tax hikes would automatically take place unless a better plan could be reached by Jan. 1. Since the first deal was reached there’s been a presidential election in which President Barack Obama made clear he wanted higher taxes on the wealthy. Since he was re-elected by a comfortable margin, he maintains he has the voters’ approval to raise taxes. Republicans say they’re OK with tax “revenue” going up, but not through higher rates. They want to cut loopholes and deductions. Obama says the money that produces wouldn’t be enough, and he needs the taxes too.

Seems pretty straightforward. In fact, Obama said this week it could be sorted out “in about a week,” if they really tried. But government is government, so rather than compromise, both sides are counting down to the final episode on Dec. 31, complete with personal rivalries and public snubs.

Last week, for instance, we learned that House majority leader John Boehner went to the White House Christmas reception, but avoided the reception line and wouldn’t get his picture taken with President Obama. (In Lincoln, ardent abolitionist and pain in the butt Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones, waits his turn in the reception line like everyone else, and gets reamed out by Mrs. Lincoln, played by Sally Field, for his troubles.) Boehner’s snub was followed by several days of studied silence, as the two sides played a game of chicken over who would phone who first.

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner upped the ante, declaring that Democrats were “absolutely” willing to go over the cliff, if that’s what Congress wanted. “The size of the problem is so large it can’t be solved without rates going up,” Geithner told CNBC. Like other Democrat leaders, he’s feeling his oats because polls indicate most Americans are more than happy to whack the rich with a tax increase, as long as it doesn’t affect their own benefits, and that a majority would blame the Republicans if the country goes over the “cliff.”

That has Republicans on the defensive, forcing them to argue they’re the ones who are most concerned about the fate of the country.

“Going over the fiscal cliff will put our economy, jobs, people’s paychecks and retirement at risk, but that is what the White House wants, according to Secretary Geithner, if they don’t get their way,” insisted Orrin Hatch, a senator from Utah, who called Geithner’s remarks “stunning and irresponsible.” The anti-tax forces suffered a serious blow, however, when Jim DeMint, a South Carolina senator identified as “probably the most influential Tea Party advocate in Congress” said he was quitting his seat to take on a job as head of the Heritage Foundation. His departure was quickly cast as a sign of continued weakening in the most conservative wing of the party, which failed to get several high-profile members elected in November, and followed a purge by Boehner earlier in the week. Four conservatives were stripped of their committee assignments, and others were warned to start toeing the line, accused of failing to be “team players.”

“This is not golf. This is baseball. You’re part of a team,” said Rep. Pat Tiberi, a close ally of Boehner from his home state of Ohio.

Boehner has been struggling for two years to get control of his party, against continued resistance from Tea Partyers and outspoken opponents. With Republicans waging war on one another, the momentum looks to be in Obama’s favour, though Reuters suggested the purge could backfire on Boehner by getting Tea Party backs in the air. Justin Amash, a Michigan congressman who has been a thorn for Boehner and who was kicked off the Budget committee, wrote on his Facebook page: “If they think kicking me off of a committee will lead me to abandon my principles or stifle my bipartisan work toward a balanced budget, I have a message for them: You’re dead wrong.”

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.